LONG,
long ago there lived in Kyoto a brave soldier named Kintoki. Now he
fell in love with a beautiful lady and married her. Not long after
this, through the malice of some of his friends, he fell into
disgrace at Court and was dismissed. This misfortune so preyed upon
his mind that he did not long survive his dismissal — he died,
leaving behind him his beauti­ful young wife to face the world
alone. Fearing her husband's enemies, she fled to the Ashigara
Mountains as soon as her husband was dead, and there in the lonely
forests where no one ever came except woodcutters, a little boy was
born to her. She called him Kintaro or the Golden Boy. Now the
remarkable thing about this child was his great strength, and as he
grew older he grew stronger and stronger, so that by the time he was
eight years of age he was able to cut down trees as quickly as the
woodcutters. Then his mother gave him a large axe, and he used to go
out in the forest and help the woodcutters, who called him
"Wonder-child," and his mother the "Old Nurse of the
Mountains," for they did not know her high rank. Another
favourite pastime of Kintaro's was to smash up rocks and stones. You
can imagine how strong he was!

Quite
unlike other boys, Kintaro grew up all alone in the mountain wilds,
and as he had no companions he made friends with all the animals and
learned to understand them and to speak their strange talk. By
degrees they all grew quite tame and looked upon Kintaro as their
master, and he used them as his servants and messengers. But his
special retainers were the bear, the deer, the monkey and the hare.

The
bear often brought her cubs for Kintaro to romp with, and when she
came to take them home Kintaro would get on her back and have a ride
to her cave. He was very fond of the deer too, and would often put
his arms round the creature's neck to show that its long horns did
not frighten him. Great was the fun they all had together.

One
day, as usual, Kintaro went up into the mountains, followed by the
bear, the deer, the monkey, and the hare. After walking for some time
up hill and down dale and over rough roads, they suddenly came out
upon a wide and grassy plain covered with pretty wild flowers.

Here,
indeed, was a nice place where they could all have a good romp
together. The deer rubbed his horns against a tree for pleasure, the
monkey scratched his back, the hare smoothed his long ears, and the
bear gave a grunt of satisfaction.

Kintaro
said, "Here is a place for a good game. What do you all say to a
wrestling match?"

The
bear being the biggest and the oldest, answered for the others:

"That
will be great fun," said she. "I am the strongest animal,
so I will make the platform for the wrestlers"; and she set to
work with a will to dig up the earth and to pat it into shape.

"All
right," said Kintaro, "I will look on while you all wrestle
with each other. I shall give a prize to the one who wins in each
round."

THEN
THE MONKEY
AND THE HARE HOPPED OUT

"What
fun! we shall all try to get the prize," said the bear.

The
deer, the monkey and the hare set to work to help the bear raise the
platform on which they were all to wrestle. When this was finished,
Kintaro cried out:

"Now
begin! the monkey and the hare shall open the sports and the deer
shall be umpire. Now, Mr. Deer, you are to be umpire!"

"He,
he!" answered the deer. "I will be umpire. Now, Mr. Monkey
and Mr. Hare, if you are both ready, please walk out and take your
places on the platform."

Then
the monkey and the hare both hopped out, quickly and nimbly, to the
wrestling platform. The deer, as umpire, stood between the two and
called out:

"Red-back!
Red-back!" (this to the monkey, who has a red back in Japan).
"Are you ready?"

Then
he turned to the hare:

"Long-ears!
Long-ears! are you ready?"

Both
the little wrestlers faced each other while the deer raised a leaf on
high as signal. When he dropped the leaf the monkey and the hare
rushed upon each other, crying "Yoisho, yoisho!"

While
the monkey and the hare wrestled, the deer called out encouragingly
or shouted warnings to each of them as the hare or the monkey pushed
each other near the edge of the platform and were in danger of
falling over.

So
the monkey and the hare, encouraged by their friends, tried their
very hardest to beat each other. The hare at last gained on the
monkey. The monkey seemed to trip up, and the hare giving him a good
push sent him flying off the platform with a bound. The poor monkey
sat up rubbing his back, and his face was very long as he screamed
angrily, "Oh, oh! how my back hurts — my back hurts me!"

"Seeing
the monkey in this plight on the ground, the deer holding his leaf on
high said:

"This
round is finished — the hare has won."

Kintaro
then opened his luncheon box and taking out a rice-dumpling, gave it
to the hare saying:

"Here
is your prize, and you have earned it well!"

Now
the monkey got up looking very cross, and as they say in Japan "
his stomach stood up," for he felt that he had not been fairly
beaten. So he said to Kintaro and the others who were standing by:

"I
have not been fairly beaten. My foot slipped and I tumbled. Please
give me another chance and let the hare wrestle with me for another
round."

Then
Kintaro consenting, the hare and the monkey began to wrestle again.
Now, as everyone knows, the monkey is a cunning animal by nature, and
he made up his mind to get the best of the hare this time if it were
possible. To do this, he thought that the best and surest way would
be to get hold of the hare's long ear. This he soon managed to do.
The hare was quite thrown off his guard by the pain of having his
long ear pulled so hard, and the monkey seizing his opportunity at
last, caught hold of one of the hare's legs and sent him sprawling in
the middle of the dais. The monkey was now the victor and received a
rice-dumpling from Kintaro, which pleased him so much that he quite
forgot his sore back.

The
deer now came up and asked the hare if he felt ready for another
round, and if so whether he would try a round with him, and the hare
consenting, they both stood up to wrestle. The bear came forward as
umpire.

The
deer with long horns and the hare with long ears, it must have been
an amusing sight to those who watched this queer match. Suddenly the
deer went down on one of his knees, and the bear with the leaf on
high declared him beaten. In this way, sometimes the one, sometimes
the other, conquering, the little party amused themselves till they
were tired.

At
last Kintaro got up and said:

"This
is enough for to-day. What a nice place we have found for wrestling;
let us come again to-morrow. Now, we will all go home. Come along!"
So saying, Kintaro led the way while the animals followed.

After
walking some little distance they came out on the banks of a river
flowing through a valley. Kintaro and his four furry friends stood
and looked about for some means of crossing. Bridge there was none.
The river rushed " don, don " on its way. All the animals
looked serious, wondering how they could cross the stream and get
home that evening.

Kintaro,
however, said:

"Wait
a moment. I will make a good bridge for you all in a few minutes."

The
bear, the deer, the monkey and the hare looked at him to see what he
would do now.

Kintaro
went from one tree to another that grew along the river bank. At last
he stopped in front of a very large tree that was growing at the
water's edge. He took hold of the trunk and pulled it with all his
might, once, twice, thrice! At the third pull, so great was Kintaro's
strength that the roots gave way, and "mèri, mèri"
(crash, crash), over fell the tree, forming an excellent bridge
across the stream.

"There,"
said Kintaro, "what do you think of my bridge? It is quite safe,
so follow me," and he stepped across first. The four animals
followed. Never had they seen anyone so strong before, and they all
exclaimed:

"How
strong he is! how strong he is!"

While
all this was going on by the river a woodcutter, who happened to be
standing on a rock overlooking the stream, had seen all that passed
beneath him. He watched with great surprise Kintaro and his animal
companions. He rubbed his eyes to be sure that he was not dreaming
when he saw this boy pull over a tree by the roots and throw it
across the stream to form a bridge.

The
woodcutter, for such he seemed to be by his dress, marvelled at all
he saw, and said to himself:

"This
is no ordinary child. Whose son can he be? I will find out before
this day is done."

He
hastened after the strange party and crossed the bridge behind them.
Kintaro knew nothing of all this, and little guessed that he was
being followed. On reaching the other side of the river he and the
animals separated, they to their lairs in the woods and he to his
mother, who was waiting for him.

As
soon as he entered the cottage, which stood like a matchbox in the
heart of the pine-woods, he went to greet his mother, saying:

"Okkasan
(mother), here I am!"

"O,
Kimbo!" said his mother with a bright smile, glad to see her boy
home safe after the long day. "How late you are to-day. I feared
that something had happened to you. Where have you been all the
time?"

"I
took my four friends, the bear, the deer, the monkey, and the hare,
up into the hills, and there I made them try a wrestling match, to
see which was the strongest. We all enjoyed the sport, and are going
to the same place to-morrow to have another match."

"Now
tell me who is the strongest of all?" asked his mother,
pretending not to know.

"Oh,
mother," said Kintaro, "don't you know that I am the
strongest? There was no need for me to wrestle with any of them."

"But
next to you then, who is the strongest?"

"The
bear comes next to me in strength," answered Kintaro.

"And
after the bear?" asked his mother again.

"Next
to the bear it is not easy to say which is the strongest, for the
deer, the monkey, and the hare all seem to be as strong as each
other," said Kintaro.

Suddenly
Kintaro and his mother were startled by a voice from outside.

"Listen
to me, little boy! Next time you go, take this old man with you to
the wrestling match. He would like to join the sport too!"

It
was the old woodcutter who had followed Kintaro from the river. He
slipped off his clogs and entered the cottage. Yama-uba and her son
were both taken by surprise. They looked at the intruder wonderingly,
and saw that he was someone they had never seen before.

"Who
are you?" they both exclaimed.

Then
the woodcutter laughed and said:

"It
does not matter who I am yet, but let us see who has the strongest
arm — this boy or myself?"

Then
Kintaro, who had lived all his life in the forest, answered the old
man without any ceremony, saying:

"We
will have a try if you wish it, but you must not be angry whoever is
beaten."

Then
Kintaro and the woodcutter both put out their right arms and grasped
each other's hands. For a long time Kintaro and the old man wrestled
together in this way, each trying to bend the other's arm, but the
old man was very strong, and the strange pair were evenly matched. At
last the old man desisted, declaring it a drawn game.

"You
are, indeed, a very strong child. There are few men who can boast of
the strength of my right arm!" said the woodcutter. "I saw
you first on the banks of the river a few hours ago, when you pulled
up that large tree to make a bridge across the torrent. Hardly able
to believe what I saw I followed you home. Your strength of arm,
which I have just tried, proves what I saw this afternoon. When you
are full-grown you will surely be the strongest man in all Japan. It
is a pity that you are hidden away in these wild mountains."

Then
he turned to Kintaro's mother:

"And
you, mother, have you no thought of taking your child to the Capital,
and of teaching him to carry a sword as befits a samurai (a Japanese
knight)?"

"You
are very kind to take so much interest in my son," replied the
mother; "but he is as you see, wild and uneducated, and I fear
it would be very difficult to do as you say. Because of his great
strength as an infant I hid him away in this unknown part of the
country, for he hurt everyone that came near him. I have often wished
that I could, one day, see my boy a knight wearing two swords, but as
we have no influential friend to introduce us at the Capital, I fear
my hope will never come true."

THE
KIND
GENERAL GRADUALLY UNFOLDED HIS PLAN

"You
need not trouble yourself about that. To tell you the truth I am no
woodcutter! I am one of the great generals of Japan. My name is
Sadamitsu, and I am a vassal of the powerful Lord Minamoto-no-Raiko.
He ordered me to go round the country and look for boys who give
promise of remarkable strength, so that they may be trained as
soldiers for his army. I thought that I could best do this by
assuming the disguise of a woodcutter. By good fortune, I have thus
unexpectedly come across your son. Now if you really wish him to be a
samurai (a knight), I will take him and present him to the Lord Raiko
as a candidate for his service. What do you say to this?"

Ai
the kind general gradually unfolded his plan the mother's heart was
filled with a great joy. She saw that here was a wonderful chance of
the one wish of her life being fulfilled — that of seeing Kintaro a
samurai before she died.

Bowing
her head to the ground, she replied:

"I
will then entrust my son to you if you really mean what you say."

Kintaro
had all this time been sitting by his mother's side listening to what
was said. When his mother finished speaking, he exclaimed:

"Oh,
joy! joy! I am to go with the general and one day I shall be a
samurai!"

Thus
Kintaro's fate was settled, and the general decided to start for the
Capital at once, taking Kintaro with him. It need hardly be said that
Yama-uba was sad at parting with her boy, for he was all that was
left to her. But she hid her grief with a strong face, as they say in
Japan. She knew that it was for her boy's good that he should leave
her now, and she must not discourage him just as he was setting out.
Kintaro promised never to forget her, and said that as soon as he was
a knight wearing two swords he would build her a home and take care
of her in her old age.

All
the animals, those he had tamed to serve him, the bear, the deer, the
monkey, and the hare, as soon as they found out that he was going
away, came to ask if they might attend him as usual. When they
learned that he was going away for good they followed him to the foot
of the mountain to see him off.

"Kimbo,"
said his mother, "mind and be a good boy."

"Mr.
Kintaro," said the faithful animals, "we wish you good
health on your travels."

Then
they all climbed a tree to see the last of him, and from that height
they watched him and his shadow gradually grow smaller and smaller,
till he was lost to sight.

The
general Sadamitsu went on his way rejoicing at having so unexpectedly
found such a prodigy as Kintaro.

Having
arrived at their destination the general took Kintaro at once to his
Lord, Minamoto-no-Raiko, and told him all about Kintaro and how he
had found the child. Lord Raiko was delighted with the story, and
having commanded Kintaro to be brought to him, made him one of his
vassals at once.

Lord
Raiko's army was famous for its band called "The Four Braves."
These warriors were chosen by himself from amongst the bravest and
strongest of his soldiers, and the small and well-picked band was
distinguished throughout the whole of Japan for the dauntless courage
of its men.

When
Kintaro grew up to be a man his master made him the Chief of the Four
Braves. He was by far the strongest of them all. Soon after this
event, news was brought to the city that a cannibal monster had taken
up his abode not far away and that people were stricken with fear.
Lord Raiko ordered Kintaro to the rescue. He immediately started off,
delighted at the prospect of trying his sword.

LoRD
RAIKo
oRDERED KiNTARo To THE RESCUE

Surprising
the monster in its den, he made short work of cutting off its great
head, which he carried back in triumph to his master.

Kintaro
now rose to be the greatest hero of his country, and great was the
power and honour and wealth that came to him. He now kept his promise
and built a comfortable home for his old mother, who lived happily
with him in the Capital to the end of her days.